Page 102 of Angel of Thursdays

May’s eye had been twitching for a full week by the time the next Thursday rolled around and the Gay Angel of Time and Temperance knocked on his door.

He knew it was Cassiel, because who else would it be other than his landlord. He checked the time as he scrambled for the door in boxers and his oversized Wrestleguy T-shirt—8:50 a.m.

The floor was cold on his bare feet. He should have worn a cardigan, only he’d felted his nice one and it would belong to a hypothetical future cat he could own. Not in this apartment. It would have to live with Cassiel, if Cassiel did not break up with him after meeting his mother, or upon seeing his T-shirt.

The door opened onto Cassiel standing there, not a hair out of place, looking K-drama hot in his expensive Japanese coat and navy scarf, holding a paper bag from Arizmendi.

“I brought breakfast,” Cassiel said. He seemed to be looking at the faces of the men on the Wrestleguy shirt. “You’re not dressed.”

“It is—” May squinted at the bag. Oil was collecting at the bottom of it, which was only ever a fantastic indication, and whatever was inside smelled good. “Not even nine.”

“We’re leaving at five.”

“That’s in eight hours.”

“Hm,” Cassiel said, as if the eight hours was not a valid protest, and walked past him into the apartment.

The 9 a.m. alarm went off while they were eating cheese rolls at the kitchen counter, the phone singing happily from his pocket. May froze with a piece of roll in his cheek.

Cassiel raised an eyebrow, flicked the crumb away with his thumb. May produced the phone from his pocket and set it on the counter, sliding the alarm away to silence it. But he knew Cassiel saw. Gay Angel, every Thursday.

“You’ve had that since August.” It should have been a question but it wasn’t.

“Yep,” May said.

Cassiel ate his cheese roll in halves, like a maniac. The mouth twitch was small. Most people wouldn’t have seen it.

“Since you’re here, eight hours early because you have a fake job… Did you want to do something? What are you up to?”

“I can’t be here without an agenda?” Cassiel asked.

“You don’t do things without an agenda.” May crunched his roll and crumbs exploded down the front of his shirt. He didn’t bother brushing them away. “Do you want the lowdown on the dinner? We can do the whole cover story thing again.”

Cassiel considered this a moment, glanced over at the notebooks on the counter, and May followed his gaze. The yellow notebook for STDY, the green for personal and miscellaneous, the purple that had started as purple, turned into Thursday, and become just Cassiel.

“Do you want a cover story?” he asked.

He could have meant for their relationship, but May couldn’t help thinking he probably also meant Seollal. May shook his head.

“Nah. My mom won’t do the ‘When and how did you meet’ thing. She might suspect a Homosexual Underground. Or Overground. She probably doesn’t want to know.”

“Then… What I do for a living. What school I attended. Where my family is from.”

“Right on the money,” May said. His boyfriend was so smart. He reached over and tried to take a bite of Cassiel’s remaining cheese roll only to have it yanked from him. He bit at the air and had the satisfaction of seeing a proper smile.

Cassiel took the purple notebook from its spot with one hand, undid the elastic and opened it to the index that May had obviously never filled out and never would, then started flipping. May tried not to think too hard about the incriminating things he might have written inside.

What had been the last thing in it? Jaewon’s portrait, probably.

“By the way,” he said, “your nephew wants to come to May Day. It’s an annual film festival held at my apartment where I get blackout drunk and watch b-movies while eating pasta bake. Is that cool?”

“I’ll ask his mother.”

“I’m gonna be a demon at his birthday party. Invite’s going to your place, though, which is gonna be awkward, because you’re⁠—”

Cassiel raised an eyebrow.

“—an angel and you’d be bringing a demon as your plus one. Unless I also get an invite. I do, don’t I? Does your nephew know you’re an angel?”